Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
All I can really say about this episode is that it was interesting. Nothing mindblowing, nothing really boring either. But Sheppard is an *idiot* for thinking with his dick half the time in this episode.
Those Ancient warships sure stand the test of time, hm? They abandoned it because it was flooding radiation, but was otherwise OK; 10,000 years later, it was *still* otherwise OK. And it wasn't sitting on the bottom of an ocean protected by a shield, but floating freely in space where anything could happen to it. I keep wondering if the Ancients were so advanced and their computers so smart, if perhaps the Aurora-class ships that survived were actively (or passively) defending themselves from small-scale threats of their own initiative.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Well space is mostly empty. Aside from the odd micrometeorite, exactly what do expect is going to happen to it orbiting at the outer edge of a white dwarf's system for only 10,000 years? Not much, that's what!
Is it my imagination, or did that "overcrowded" ship look a little...not crowded? I'm also a little disappointed that their culture isn't at all distinctive from anything else we've seen of the Pegasus humans. I mean, after 10,000 years in space you'd think they'd act just a little differently, no?
I suppose I'm prejudiced because I have a soft spot for the old Heinlein novel "Citizen of the Galaxy" and the Free Traders, but still, not a very interesting introduction.
Small point, but are there ANY not-so-hot women in the Stargate universe? Not that I have a thing for the dogs, but it always seams a bit off to me if there aren't many normal looking people to be seen. Especially if they've supposedly been inbreeding for ten millennia.
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And again, the war is going badly for the Bovine Empire. (Yet more leather! Doesn't anyone in this galaxy know how to sew?)
Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
No time for commentary from me this week or next. However, I'm glad that they're addressing the Pegasus Galaxy's relative lack of advanced worlds in some form. These Travellers will be explored over the course of this season, and now that Atlantis is renewed for a fifth year (yay!), some things will have time to play out.
I'm also glad they've FINALLY given Ronon an "out" in case he ever loses his way-cool gun. Two years of ALWAYS getting it back, even after being captured multiple times, was getting a little corny. They also seem capable of running out of energy, which Ronon never seemed to do.
posted
Maybe he had McKay rig up a handy-dandy charger?
Registered: Jul 2002
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I thought of that too, that Ronon's gun never seems to run out of energy. I noticed it several times over the past seasons and always figured he was recharging it somehow. I still rather think that - I'm sure Rodney or Zalenka (or probably even one of the nameless techs) could rig some kind of charging circuit if Ronon gave them the specs (or even figure out the specs for themselves by reverse-engineering the power modules).
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Or he has spare batteries and a solar powered charger on him. I can't see him encountering any advanced power sources back when he was a runner.
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I've got a feeling they'll explain more about Ronon's gun, now that they have a source for getting another one (or more!) than the single one he's had. They seem to be more versatile than the captured wraith stunners they've been using, with two settings and less bulk... Perhaps the Atlantis crew is getting an upgrade? The power thing may be an issue, since few energy weapons in the Stargate 'verse seem to have trouble with it (the Zat guns, Teal'c's staff weapon, and various Wraith guns we've seen have never run out of power that we've seen). OTOH, we see in this episode that the gun has a removable glowey thing that is presumably an energy cell.
Plus, it just looks DAMN COOL. And no other weapon in the Stargate universe has been well balanced enough that people can do spiffy spinny moves with it.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
The staff weapons are powered by little packets of liquid naqadah. I always assumed that meant they had built-in power generators that were *fueled* by naqadah; have we ever heard reference to naqadah itself generating electricity, as opposed to being used in a reactor of some sort? If it is some kind of reactor scenario, who knows how long it could last - they're coming out with a type of 'nuclear' battery IRL that could last for 35 years of constant charge...lemme see if I can hunt down a link.
posted
As for the mention that the ships we saw didn't look particularly crowded, I have a theory about that. Given that this entire civilization has been living in space ships for, oh, 10000 years, I would think that by now they have it down to a science. The ships that contain the majority of the population are big, slow-moving, moderately armed ships that meander from point to point. The ships we saw are the ones that go out and gather supplies, intel, harrass enemies, etc. After all, you wouldn't want large sections of your population on your battleships, would you? Basically what was intended for the E-D, only on a larger scale (cause, we all know they always took the civvies into battle).
Which would be why they were really excited to find the Ancient ship: its really really big. It probably doesn't move as swiftly in close-quarters as their smaller ships that we saw. Now, mind you, its probably armed a lot better than their attack ships, but they might go about transferring those armaments.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Except they had to strand some of their people on planets. I doubt they'd do that if there were ships half empty. As for taking civies into battle, these are supposedly travellers, so there is no military, every ship should be armed and mostly out for itself. Think of them as Fremen in space, where every member of a ship's company is disciplined from birth to be a part of the crew. It's not like they could afford to have a useless part of the population. I'd also organise them into a tribal or clan structure, with very strict social rules governing standing, rank and marriage. Not that I expect the show runners to really think this through in any detail. I'd just be nice to have a non-antagonist civilisation that actually had a distinguishing identity from the vaguely medieval look most worlds generally get.
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I loved this episode, and great to see a new advanced race, even if they are just interstellar pikeys and gypos.
They seemed to be pretty advanced as well. I mean able to nutralise a Jumper pretty quick, without destroying it. Although I'm a little disapointed with that scene when the Aurora lost it's shields and the wraith cruiser fired that blast. I was expecting the Apollo/Daedalus to jump out of hyperspace and take the shot on their shields. Or have the Apollo/Daedalus show up at some point in that episode, would have been good to see how those traveller's ships deal with something a little larger than a Puddle Jumper.
Another thought where has the Daedalus gone? We haven't seen it since 3x15 The Game, I believe. Gone back to Earth for a refit maybe? The reason it's taken so long to appear on Atlantis is maybe they finished the refit but now they putting Asgard weaponary on? Pure fan-boy speculation there I know.
It's great to see where Ronon got his gun from, and I always thought that his weapon was similar to an Intar (or whatever they were called). You remember those staff/mp5's which fired red stun shots, that SG-1 found on Apophis's training camp? Ihose Intar's only had a stun setting as far as I can remember, but perhaps Ronon's gun and those the interstellar gypsies use is a maturer form of that technology, which has been developed by their own people.
[rant] That's one thing that bugged me with Atlantis, is that the SGC has all these fancy weapons, like Intar's, Staff weapons, Re'tu cloak nullifiers, Zat's, but they send the expedition off with just normal Earth weaponary??? They should at least have some Zat's or Intar's as sidearms for their stunning capabilities... [/rant]
Registered: Oct 2007
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I'm sure we'll get to see how the Apollo stacks up against them. They're going to be putting in a regular appearance. One thing at a time...
And I'm gonna go all grammar police on you because I'm in an anal mood. Common nouns aren't capitalized in English (ie, zat, not Zat) and apostrophe is used to show possession, not pluralization (ie, zats, not zat's. Or Zat's. Or Z'ats, or Zat's's''.)
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Yeah, I should really know better with those apostrophes. I never knew that about the common nouns thing though, it just seemed wrong to put zat with a small "z." Although I wouldn't capitalise the first letters in shotgun or pistol, so I guess that's true.
Hard to believe that English and English Lit. were my best subjects at school.
Registered: Oct 2007
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